CHAPTER THREE

THE NIGHTMARE

Ella tries to wriggle her hand free from where she laid buried, her little frame covered in splinters of wood, rubbles and fire. 

She steadies her breath, her demeanor calm and collected when she pries one of her hands free. In no time, she is out of the rubble, her forehead gashed with a deep cut.

“Mom!” She called out, her tiny voice echoing as the night wind, chilly and unforgiving, caressed her battered skin. The mansion was torn apart, most of the rooms set on fire. Panic slowly crept up her throat. “Mom!”She yelled, her eyes trying to fight away tears.

She turns around in circles, and she should hear a gunshot from somewhere. Instinctively, she ducked, afraid she was the only one in the building. 

She stopped in her tracks when she noticed drops of blood pooling a hair's length away from her feet. Her mind was telling her not to stare upwards, but she did.

Her mother's face stared back at her, bloated, her body missing, blood still squirting from her neck.

Ella screamed in her sleep and it took Rose, her personal handmaiden to calm her down, when Rose held onto her firmly, but she was still thrashing wildly on the bed. 

“I'm here with you, Ella,” Rose said, moved to tears. “Open your —

“What in the world is going on here?!” Naomi, one of the mansion's maids, thundered into the room, her gaze fixated on Ella as she approached. 

Ella had snapped out of her trance, obviously startled by Naomi's hostile voice. Rose was about to respond when Naomi shoved her aside. Ella whimpered, still shaken from her nightmare.

Naomi gripped Ella's cheek, her fingers digging deep into her skin. “You just have to disturb the quiet of the mansion, huh?”

“Why are you doing that to her?! Let her be!” Rose yelled, trying to push Naomi off Ella. Ella couldn't stop the tears flowing down her cheeks. She just stared back plainly at Naomi, muffling her cries as Naomi growled with respite.

“You cannot keep disturbing the peace of the mansion, understand? You cannot keep inconveniencing me!”

“Mr Marcelo —

Naomi gripped Rose by the throat, finally letting go of Ella. Her voice grew even darker, her hands pressing so tight on Rose's throat all the blood in her body rushed up to her face, the veins in her throat bulging out like they were going to escape their entrapment. 

“One word out of this room, and I will murder you two. Got it?!”

Ella shuddered as she watched Naomi walk out of the room, slamming the door. Rose rushed up to Ella, her eyes pleading silently. 

She can’t be pleading for her job at this point, for her life was already on the line, should any word of Naomi's rebellion get out to Marcelo. She wrapped Ella tight in her embrace, hoping to offer her comfort.

“I want my brother here,” Ella whispered, her voice breaking. Rose hugged her even tighter, 

“Naomi was only joking. You shouldn't mind her words,” she pulled away from Ella, wiping off her tears, “okay?”

“But she wasn't joking,” Ella protested, “she had that look on her face when my mom was dying.” Rose stared at Ella in disbelief, her mind a maze, trying to figure out what meaning she was to read to what Ella had just said.

***

Stacy's POV~

“You don't seem happy,” Jennifer whispered as she pulled away from my embrace, settling on the sofa. “You didn't get the job?”

“No!” I whined, “that's not it.”

“Then why are you … “She gestured at my face like this?”

“I’m really counting on M&E's instead,” I said soberly. Jennifer's eyes lightened up, but just before I could realize what she was thinking, it was too late.

“You are this eager to meet your charming lord, Marcelo Jones?” Jennifer teased with a wink. 

I craned my neck just to be sure my mom was out of ear shot. “Goodness! You are in such a haste! Well, I understand. The guy's so hot —"

“Can you just shut it, Jenny?!” I shrieked, my cheeks flaring. As much as I didn't want to think about him at that moment, I tried conjuring the image of him I had seen on Jennifer's laptop. 

A tiny voice whispered in my mind: This isn't you; you've just been sex-deprived for long. Bed him one time and you'd be calm again. I almost felt myself gasp at my own thoughts, suppressing my wild thoughts before I spilled them out to Jennifer.

“But really, Stacy, what's wrong? I know you don’t like your old workplace again but is it that bad?”

“It's not that. I mean, I do think it's great and all, but ... the pay we ended up agreeing to? That's something special delicacy deliveries would offer me in just two calls."

“No way! They offered to pay —"

“$2,500 according to the email, I know,” I rolled my eyes, "but they changed their budgets as soon as I was interviewed."

“So why didn't you say anything?!”

“Well ... I need a stable source of income, and ... I never can tell who is going to be my next client. Should I stick to delivering home-made meals and confectionaries? I can't rely on that only to cater for mom.” 

I felt my eyes stung with tears, and Jennifer pulled me into a quick embrace.

“Hey, listen. You're stressing yourself out too much. I know you're putting a lot of effort into your thoughts and decisions, and Mrs Helen and I, for one, can testify to that. You know what? Let's see what happens this week. I have a friend at M&E's. Maybe we should try to get a certain response from them on whether or not you'd be called in for a interview."

My eyes shone with gratitude, "Really?!"

"Yeah!" Jennifer chuckled, "It shouldn't take up to a week."

I embraced her tightly. "Thank you," I whispered.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

Naomi was striding back to her station, her anger flaring. She hadn't noticed the silhouette hanging in the dark before it landed a kick that made her knees give off. A gun was aimed at her head, and she smiled as the night lights illuminated the face of her attacker.

"Mabel.”